# Line breaking and floating

I have a matrix and I want to show some lines of text floating right to the matrix. The problem is that the following code shows two lines of text without executing \\ break-line.

$M = \left( \begin{array}{cccc} a & b & c & d \\ 1 & 2 & 3 & 4\\ a & b & c & d\\ 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \end{array} \right)\ Something \\ Something ]  How can I fix it? - ## 1 Answer Depending on what it is you want to write next to the matrix, you can always stack it in a tabular: \documentclass{article} \begin{document} \[ M = \left( \begin{array}{cccc} a & b & c & d \\ 1 & 2 & 3 & 4\\ a & b & c & d\\ 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \end{array} \right) \qquad \begin{tabular}{@{}l} First row \\ Row number 2 \\ Third row \\ Last or fourth row. \end{tabular}$
\end{document}


Creating matrices is also somewhat automated using other constructions. See Where is the \matrix command? For example, your matrix could be created using a pmatrix environment.

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Perfect: just another thing. Matrix is center aligned by default. How can I align it left? –  LatexNewbie Jul 29 '12 at 13:36
@LatexNewbie: If you put your array inside $...$ it will be centre aligned. If you don't want that, use $...$. If you're referring to the columns of the matrix, then you can simply change your column alignment specification from cccc to llll for left-aligned columns. –  Werner Jul 29 '12 at 13:39